UNIT 5
LEARNING THROUGH
PLAYING
Prof. Mª Jesús Perea Villena
UCJC, 2024
T A B L E OF CONTENTS
1. MOVEMENT AND LEARNING
2. PLAY AND LEARNING
2.1. A DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION OF
GAMES
2.2. PLAYFUL LEARNING
2.2.1. Free play
2.2.2. Guided play
3. CLASSIFICATION OF GAMES
4. GAME-BASED LEARNING
5. EFFECTIVE GAME-BASED LEARNING VS.
TRADITIONAL LEARNING
6. GAME-BASED LEARNING VS. TRADITIONAL
LEARNING BEE BOTS!
[Link]
& LEARNING
• Amazingly, the part of the brain that processes movement is the same part
of the brain that’s processing learning.
• The part of the brain known to control movement is involved in learning.
• Surprisingly, there is no single “movement center” in our brain (Greenfield
1995). Movement and learning have constant interplay.
• There is, in fact, substantial biological, clinical, and classroom research that
supports this conclusion. The area known as the anterior cingulate is
particularly active when novel movements or new combinations are
initiated. This particular area seems to tie some movements to learning.
1.1. AT SCHOOL
• Many researchers (Houston 1982, Ayers 1972,
Hannaford 1995) verify that sensory motor
integration is fundamental to school readiness.
• A complete routine should include spinning,
crawling, rolling, rocking, tumbling, pointing,
and matching exercises.
• The sensory-motor skills learned as children,
through both play and school activities, mean
the proper neural pathways have been laid
(Miller and Melamed 1989).
1.2. EARLY STAGES AND
MOVEMENT
• How critical is early movement? There may be a link between violence
and lack of movement.
• Infants deprived of stimulation from touch and physical activities may
not develop the movement-pleasure link in the brain. Fewer connections
are made between the cerebellum and the brain’s pleasure centers.
• Such a child may grow up unable to experience pleasure through usual
channels of pleasurable activity. As a result, the need for intense states,
one of which in violence, may develop (Kotulak 1996).
• In William Greenough’s experiments at the
University of Illinois, rats who exercised in
enriched environments had a greater number of
connections among neurons than those who
didn’t. They also had more capillaries around the
brain’s neurons than the sedentary rats
(Greenough and Anderson 1991).
• In the same way that exercise shapes up the
muscles, heart, lungs, and bones, it also
strengthens the basal ganglia, cerebellum, and
corpus callosum, all key areas of the brain.
• Researchers James Pollatschek and Frank Hagen say, “Children
engaged in daily physical education show superior motor fitness,
academic performance and attitude toward school as compared to
their counterparts who do not participate in daily physical education”
(1996).
• We know that much of the brain is involved in complex movements
and physical exercise—it’s not just “muscle work.” In fact, depending
on the type of workout, the part of the brain involved in almost all
learning, the cerebellum, is in high gear (Middleton and Strick 1994).
• Certain spinning activities led to alertness,
attention, and relaxation in the classroom.
Students who tip back on two legs of their
chairs in class often are stimulating their brain
with a rocking, vestibular activating motion.
• While it’s an unsafe activity, it happens to be
good for the brain. We ought to give students
activities that let them move safely more
often like role plays, stretching, or even games
like musical chairs.
• Give a school daily dance, music, drama, and
visual art instruction in which there is
considerable movement.
• Kids who enjoy playground
games, do it for a good reason:
Sensory-motor experiences feed
directly into their brains’ pleasure
centers.
1.3. PRACTICAL
SUGGESTIONS
• Educators should be purposeful about integrating movement activities
into everyday learning. This includes much more than hands-on
activities. It means daily stretching, walks, dance, theater, drama, seat-
changing and physical education.
• The whole notion of using only logical thinking in a mathematics class is
opposed to current brain research. Brain-compatible learning means
that educators should weave math, movement, geography, social skills,
role play, science, and physical education together.
A) CROSS-
LATERALS
• Learn and use arm and leg crossover
activities that can force both brain
hemispheres to “talk” to each other better.
“Pat your head and rub your belly” is an
example of a crossover.
• Other examples include marching in place
while patting opposite knees, patting yourself
on the opposite shoulder, and touching
opposite elbows or heels. Several books
highlight these activities, including “Brain
Gym” by Paul Dennison.
B) STRETCHING
• To open class, or anytime that you need some
more oxygen, get everyone up to do some
slow stretching. Ask students to lead the
group as a whole or let teams do their own
stretching. Allow learners more mobility in
the classroom during specific times. Offer
them errands, make a jump rope available, or
simply let them walk around the back of the
class as long as they do not disturb other
students.
• In general, you need to do all that you can to
support physical education, the arts, and
movement activities in your classroom.
• Physical activity is essential in promoting
normal growth of mental function.
• “Arts and athletics constitute powerful ways
of thinking, and skilled ways of
communicating with the world. They deserve
a greater portion of school time”.
• Movement must become as honorable and
important as so-called “book work.”
• Norman Weinberger, a scientist in the
Department of the Neurobiology of Learning
and Memory at the University of California at
Irvine, says, “Arts education facilitates
language development, enhances creativity,
boosts reading readiness, helps social
development, general intellectual
achievement, and fosters positive attitudes
towards school”
MOVEMENT IN
T H E BRAIN
2 PLAY AND LEARNING
Why do you think playing is an essential function in Early Years?
Because the essential function of playing is self-learning.
Why can games be beneficial for teachers?
For teachers, play is above all one of the best ways of getting to know a
child, both as regards his both his personal psychological make-up and
cultural and social background.
And communication between the teacher and his pupils is established through
play, and it is necessary to count on concrete provisions, both the school
premises (a free child area) and the timetable.
2.1. A definition
Playing games is necessary and an essential activity. However, the teacher should not
limit action to play, but to make it part of the classroom activities when opportunity
offers. It is the basis for playful learning pedagogy.
What “playthings” can teachers identify?
Physical behavior, through exercises and attitudes such as: running, jumping
Verbal expression: nursery rhymes, stories, games of logic and reasoning
Figurative objects: concrete items such as dolls, masks..)
Performing or plastic forms: All behavior related to theater, drawing, choreography..
Any objects that might acquire the function of a plaything.
Entertainment media: cinema television; reading matter (i.e,. novels, comics).
2.2. Playful learning
Based on Developmentally Appropriate
Practice in Early Childhood Programs
Serving Children from Birth Through Age
8, Fourth Edition (NAEYC 2022), Cpt. 5,
It is suggested that play and learning
mutually support one another, teachers
connect learning goals to children’s play,
and that defining play on a spectrum
(Zosh et al. 2018, an idea first introduced
by Bergen 1988) helps to resolve old
divisions and provides a powerful
framework that puts playful learning
Some negative conceptions
Play in early childhood settings has often suffered a bad reputation
In the 1990s, for example, a huge change took place as free play and center
time were replaced with rigid, skills-focused, highly teacher-scripted
curricula, targeted to children in schools in underserved communities (Zosh
et al., 2022)
In the turn of the millennium, with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 it
was equality for all kids was boosted avoiding the so-called gap in school
achievement between children from communities with more advantages
and resources and those from less-resourced communities.
Recognizing that early childhood is key to later academic achievement,
early reading and math were heavily emphasized in the primary grades
(Pedulla et al. 2003; Hannaway & Hamilton 2008).
Lack of playful perspective
Rigid teaching practices soon affected
straightforwardly onto preschool and
kindergarten classrooms, and playful
and child-initiated activities were
replaced with sitting longer at desks
doing pencil-and-paper tasks, very
much like “the new first grade”
(Miller & Almon 2009; Bassok,
Latham, & Rorem 2016).
According to Maria Souto-Manning (2017): “Although play has
traditionally been positioned as a privilege, it must be (re)positioned as
a right, as outlined by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of
the Child, Article 31” (785).
What is playful learning?
A learning context where children learn content while playing freely
(free play or self-directed play), with teacher guidance (guided play), or
in a structured game.
Teachers act more as the Socratic “guide at the side” than a “sage on
the stage” (King, 1993, 30; Smith 1993, 35)
Children are active discoverers who bring their prior knowledge into
the learning experience and construct an understanding.
It has been termed an active learning, as it is also developmentally
appropriate and offers a more equitable way of engaging children by
increasing access to participation.
2.2.1. Free play
Free play lets children explore and express themselves.
According to research when comparing children’s skill
development during free play with guided play, they found that
children learned more vocabulary (Toub et al. 2018) and spatial
skills (Fisher et al. 2013) in guided play than in free play.
This is a way to encourage children’s initiative, independence, and
problem solving and has been linked to benefits in social and
emotional development (e.g., Singer & Singer 1990; Pagani et al.
2010; Romano et al. 2010; Gray 2013) and language and literacy
(e.g., Neuman & Roskos 1992).
Through play, children explore and make sense of their world,
develop imaginative and symbolic thinking, and develop physical
competence.
2.2.2. Guided play
Empirical evidence shows that free play is not always sufficient when there
is a pedagogical goal at stake (Smith & Pellegrini 2008; Alfieri et al. 2011;
Fisher et al. 2013; Lillard 2013; Weisberg, Hirsh-Pasek, & Golinkoff 2013;
Toub et al. 2018).
It can be applied to a variety of topics, from learning place value in math to
identifying rhyming words in literacy activities
According to Siegler & Ramani (2008), playing a board game where children
navigate through a linear, numerical-based game board and a game board
with equally spaced game boxes from left to right increased the kids’
numerical development compared with playing the same game with colors
rather than numbers or with numbers organized in a circular fashion.
3 CLASSIFICATION OF GAMES
There are different classifications and
definitions of games, from Huizinga (1945)
who discussed the importance of play as an
element of culture and society, through the
academic and philosophical perspective by
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1953) to a more
sociological definition by Callois in Man, Play
and Games (1961) or Chris Crawford in the
1980s in terms of computers.
According to Callois, we can set four main categories based on the previous features:
-Games involving an idea of competition or challenge directed to an opponent presupposing equal
chances at the beginning. It’s a form of play that tests players’ skills (strengths, intelligence, memory..).
The winner proves to be more intelligent, i.e., chess.
-Games based on chance, differ fundamentally from the previous one and it is the ‘resignation of will, an
abandon to destiny. i.e., playing lottery, or a slot machine.
-Games of mimicry, dramatic or fictional, or roleplaying where the player pretends to be something
different from what he really is. i.e., online playing games.
-Games based on desire to induce vertigo, in order to feel out of balance or feel some sensation of panic.
The stronger the emotion is, the stronger the sense of excitement and fun becomes. I.e. children spinning
until falling.
Playing and Communicative skill
What is the main purpose of pre-primary
and primary EFL teaching and learning?
The main purpose of EFL teaching and
learning is the development of the basic
communicative language skills.
But.. What is a language skill?
Playing to develop communicative skill
A language skill is a way in which
language is used; and using a language
for communication requires receiving
and producing messages.
So, communicative skills are divided into
four: two productive skills (speaking and
writing) and two receptive skills
(listening and reading).
What does the CEFRL (Common European Framework of
Reference for Languages) describe about an individual’s skills?
The CEFRL describes and emphasizes, in a comprehensive way,
that the language learner:
………….. has to learn a language in order to use it for
communication.
…………… has to develop the knowledge and skills so as to be
able to act effectively.
……………. has to know the cultural context in which language
4 GAME-BASED LEARNING
• To progress in a game is to learn.
• When we are actively engaged with a game, our minds are experiencing
the pleasure of coming to understand a new system.
According to the definition by Johan Huizinga:
“a game is a voluntary action or activity, performed within certain
time and space limits according to rules freely accepted but binding
to an end in themselves; bound up with feelings of tension and
joy and the awareness of its being different from real life”
5 EFFECTIVE GAME-BASED LEARNING
• How does game-based learning work?
• It works when education or training feels dull, we are not being engaged
and motivated. In other words, we’re not really learning.
• “Learning” doesn’t mean rote memorization—it means acquiring the skills
and thought processes needed to respond
• We don’t need more time in the classroom to learn how to think and
perform in the face of real-world challenges.
• Within an effective game-based learning environment, we work toward
a goal, choosing actions and experiencing the consequences of those
actions along the way.
• We make mistakes in a risk-free setting, and through experimentation,
we actively learn and practice the right way to do things.
• This keeps us highly engaged in practicing behaviors and thought
processes that we can easily transfer from the simulated environment
to real life.
. 6. GAME-BASED LEARNING VS.
TRADITIONAL LEARNING
Well-designed game-based learning has several advantages over
traditional experiential learning methods. There are significant learning
advantages.
• It is cost-effective and low-risk
• Learners can act out again a precise set of circumstances multiple
times, exploring the consequences of different actions.
• In addition, well-designed games permit learning experiences that
aren’t possible in real life—for example, technological media
“designing” a dolphin to find out the parts of the body and how they
swim and move in the water.
GAME-BASED LEARNING: B E E BOTS
ROBOTICS AND GAMES
What are bee bots? They are a new concept of game-based device created
for children’s use.
We learn to program them with simple commands (left, right, ahead and
back) to achieve the targeted place. They only move 15 cm per command.
We can use pads including images, words, letters, numbers
Socialization plays an important role and we work on values such as sharing
values, respect and collaboration. We must tell our small bee robot the right
commands.
[Link]
[Link]
BEE BOT IN MOVEMENT:
[Link]
APPLICATION OF BEE BOT TO THE CURRICULUM AND DIDACTIC UNITS
We can work self awareness and personal autonomy: the student is capable of giving the robot a
series of commands.
1. Laterality is worked when they think of the bee bots’ steps. They also work the natural, social
and cultural environment.
2. Numeric skills: concepts of quantity, number figure/word relationship. They learn to respect
their peers’ turns and times. They learn to socialize and work in group
3. Languages: Communication and representation: they learn to understand, verbalize and
recognize the vocabulary worked in English.
EXAMPLES OF GAMES
• What game are these children playing? What do they need?
[Link]
[Link]
Now look: [Link]
- PERFORMING AND MIMICRY:
[Link]
Children describing their own games:
[Link]
Other games:
- [Link]
BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES
- MacMahon, Michael K. C. "Phonetic Notation". In P. T. Daniels and
W. Bright (eds.). The World's Writing Systems. New York: Oxford
University Press. (1996) pp. 821–846. ISBN 0-19-507993-0.
- Marcos Peñate Cabrera. Teaching the four Skills in the Primary
Foreign Language Classroom. Las Palmas: Universidad de las
Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2002.
- Zosh, J.M., K. Hirsh-Pasek, E.J. Hopkins, H. Jensen, C. Liu, D.
Neale, S.L. Solis, & D. Whitebread. 2018. “Accessing the
Inaccessible: Redefining Play as a Spectrum.” Frontiers in
Psychology 9: 1–12. [Link]
FURTHER
SUGGESTIONS?